In what was originally designed as a toy for his son, Graham Richter has built a device with a huge LED matrix, temperature sensor, real-time clock and a voice synthesiser IC all powered by an Arduino. Apart from simply displaying the time - it can function as a talking clock, a visual stimulant, and due to the open-source nature of the project it can be modified for many other purposes as well. Interestingly the LED matrix is a version of the LoL shield by Jimmie Rodgers so the LEDs are charlieplexed - saving money and utilising existing libraries. Watch the demonstration in the following video to see the chlonos in action:

Well done to Graham for creating an interesting and well-finished project. For more information visit the chlonos pages. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

When making your own clock - don't skimp on timing accuracy - so consider using our real-time clock module based on the DS3232 - with a temperature-controlled oscillator it is highly accurate, and has an onboard backup battery for when the power dies and 236 bytes of non-volatile memory for user data.